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I hit the Avon Wal-Mart last night. Nothing new in Star Wars, but they did have a lot of the new Thor figures and the Pirates of the Caribbean figures. I hadn't seen the Odin and Loki figures yet, but they had them. The Pirates figures were kind of neat too, but I ended up passing on everything. It all seems kind of blah to me right now.

Rat: If you could have a conversation with one person, living or dead, who would it be?

I hit the WM in Lafayette yesterday and they had nothing. The kids and I ran to Brownsburg WM last night: Nothing. And I hit the Avon Wal-Mart this afternoon: Any guesses? Big zilch.

The one constant they all had were tons of Sand Troopers and Clones, and a few here and there from the first wave. And TONS of the Clone Wars and Legends stuff. To the point that Avon had every peg stuffed full and about a dozen and a half more stacked under them behind the unsold Grievous lightsabers. But I am sure that if we asked the Hasbro guy he would tell us this is an anomaly, and that the CW and Legends are outselling the Vintage stuff to the point that nobody even wants the Vintage line any more.

But every time I see a kid with Star Wars figures, it is the Vintage line they are looking at.

Rat: If you could have a conversation with one person, living or dead, who would it be?

Well, Thursday night I was out checking on a job in the Avon area and stopped by the WM for a second and they did have the new wave of CW there, with the Aqua Battle Droid, but I decided a long time ago due to economic reasons to focus only on Astromechs and the Vintage line. So the CW figures really didn't register with me.

And again, there are just so many of them on the pegs it makes is hard to look through them.

But when they rerelease the Dark Trooper again in the Legends line I will keep an eye out for him.

Rat: If you could have a conversation with one person, living or dead, who would it be?

On Friday I found the entire new CW wave at the Pendleton Pike Walmart - except for Ahsoka. They had 5 cases of that new wave and all the Ahsokas were gone. And of course, that's the only figure from that wave that I really care about getting. Found the Ahsoka at the Walmart in Greenfield. Another friend of mine texted a picture of the case assortment at the Walmart in Shelbyville, which also had the new CW wave.

Mostly Sandtroopers and Wave 2 Clones clogging the pegs where the Vintage line should be at the stores I am checking. Did notice that the Castleton TRU received Vintage Waves 4 & 5 on Saturday morning, but there were nothing but remnants left hanging by the time I got there. Also noticed that several of the Walmarts around town are undergoing their annual inventory - which usually means that even if they have product in the back, they won't put it out until after the inventory is done the next day. Some people have had luck showing up that next day...

I have seen every figure from the Vintage waves 4 & 5 except Zam and the Senate Guard. Hoping the wave is still distributing so I can find those figs. I understand Wave 6 (with the Weeqway guard) is already hitting in some places. Should be here soon.

Found nothing new at all. Nothing. KMart & Targets are still rockin' Vintage wave 1 remnants and don't look like they've even ever seen wave 2. Walmarts are chock full of sand and E3 clone troopers. Of course Walmarts are overflowing with Legends and CW peg warmers. Several Walmarts have reset their toy isles and removed GI Joe & Tron completely from the mix. SW is now down to a single column for Vintage and 3 columns for Legends / CW.

I can't help but feel a bit frustrated. It seems as though apathetic store employees failing to rotate stock or order the correct volume of the right product line is inspiring decisions to downsize or cancel the carrying of brands.

If I thought it would make a difference, I would take pictures of the pegs at each store and post them to a daily blog that we could push for Hasbro to look at. Perhaps a thread on Rebelscum or SirStevesGuide with a title like "Show Us Your Pegs" would work where people from all over the country post pictures of their stores' pegs with a store number or location info and a date. Then if we could get Hasbro to see that store after store across the country is filled with nothing but E3 clones, sandtroppers, and far too many Legends peg warmers, they might be able to have their apathetic reps start training store employees on how to order and rotate the stock. What do you think? Are my wheels turning in vain?

Found nothing new at all. Nothing. KMart & Targets are still rockin' Vintage wave 1 remnants and don't look like they've even ever seen wave 2. Walmarts are chock full of sand and E3 clone troopers. Of course Walmarts are overflowing with Legends and CW peg warmers. Several Walmarts have reset their toy isles and removed GI Joe & Tron completely from the mix. SW is now down to a single column for Vintage and 3 columns for Legends / CW.

I can't help but feel a bit frustrated. It seems as though apathetic store employees failing to rotate stock or order the correct volume of the right product line is inspiring decisions to downsize or cancel the carrying of brands.

If I thought it would make a difference, I would take pictures of the pegs at each store and post them to a daily blog that we could push for Hasbro to look at. Perhaps a thread on Rebelscum or SirStevesGuide with a title like "Show Us Your Pegs" would work where people from all over the country post pictures of their stores' pegs with a store number or location info and a date. Then if we could get Hasbro to see that store after store across the country is filled with nothing but E3 clones, sandtroppers, and far too many Legends peg warmers, they might be able to have their apathetic reps start training store employees on how to order and rotate the stock. What do you think? Are my wheels turning in vain?

Unfortunately, yes, your wheels are probably turning in vain. It was something I was saying in one of my posts. People have presented this sort of evidence to the Hasbro rep in the old Q and A deal, and he seemed to dismiss it as being a regional sort of thing, and began quoting some mythical numbers that implied that the figures were out there in abundance and we were all looking in the wrong place.

We must remember, these are the people whose solution to all of us clamoring for the second Raiders of the Lost Ark wave was to make it available at a convention 3000 miles from here.

But, despite it all, I am not giving up. Monday I was at the WM in Brownsburg, checking out the pathetic display that was their Star Wars area. Saturday night I was at the WM in Greenwood at 65 and County Line. It is just consistantly bad out there...

Rat: If you could have a conversation with one person, living or dead, who would it be?

For anyone interested, I was given a tip on Rebelscum that the Walmart in Noblesville just received 2 cases of Wave 6 tonight. I went up there and sure enough, I was able to score what I wanted from the wave. Plenty left up there. Happy Hunting!

On your advice, Autumn, I headed out to AVon Wal-Mart after midnight and they had put out at least a couple cases of the Wave 6 figures and at least a case of Wave 4. The only wave 5 figure was the Stormtrooper, which I wonder if it is shipping with wave 6. (anyone know?)

Still no R5 or Yoda or Wedge, but I saw enough to keep me happy for a while.

Rat: If you could have a conversation with one person, living or dead, who would it be?